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In this map of German colonies, yellow marks Klein-Venedig and red the Prussian colonies, some of them in the Caribbean.

Klein-Venedig ("Little Venice") was the most significant part of the German colonization of the Americas, from 1528 to 1546, in which the Augsburg-based Welser banking family obtained colonial rights in Venezuela Province in return for debts owed by Charles I of Spain. The primary motivation was the search for the legendary golden city of El Dorado. The venture was initially led by Ambrosius Ehinger, who founded Maracaibo in 1529. After the deaths of first Ehinger (1533) and then his successor Georg von Speyer (1540), Philipp von Hutten continued exploration in the interior, and in his absence from the capital of the province the crown of Spain claimed the right to appoint the governor. On Hutten's return to the capital, Santa Ana de Coro, in 1546, the Spanish governor Juan de Carvajal had Hutten and Bartholomeus VI. Welser executed. Subsequently Charles V revoked Welser's charter.

The Welsers transported German miners to the colony, as well as 4,000 Africanslaves as labor to work sugar caneplantations. Many of the German colonists died from tropical diseases, to which they had no immunity, or hostile attacks by natives during frequent journeys deep into Amerindian territory in search of gold.